Jacksonville Jaguars have had a huge impact

Will.Dickey@jacksonville.com The Jacksonville way. Millions were saved in construction cost by renovating the old Gator Bowl. Most of it was torn down, but some of the infrastructure could be retained. The stadium was larger than most in the NFL for Florida-Georgia games.

The Times-Union Colts Fever. Jacksonville Mayor Jake Godbold pointed out Baltimore Colts owner Robert Irsay to a crowd in August 1979 at the Gator Bowl after Irsay arrived via helicopter to the rally held in an effort to lure the NFL team to Jacksonville. Jacksonville had a number of fevers related to attracting an NFL franchise.

Twenty years ago they said it couldn’t be done. The Jacksonville market was too small for a pro football team.

The skeptics said the city was being used by owners who threatened to move to Jacksonville, that the city was being used as leverage for new stadiums in existing NFL cities.

Call it a fever that wouldn’t break. But a civic commitment started by Mayor Jake Godbold and continued by successive mayors did the unthinkable. Jacksonville was awarded an NFL franchise in 1993. We are the smallest market in the league other than Green Bay, which is a special case.

It all began on an August night in 1979 when Godbold entertained Baltimore Colts owner Robert Irsay in the old Gator Bowl.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do that night anyway. Might as well drop by the stadium to see what all the fuss was about. Godbold was afraid nobody would show up.

Irsay landed by helicopter on the field as if he were a rock star — and for a football-crazed town, he was.

There were about 50,000 fans waiting there. In the end, Irsay snuck away to Indianapolis. Jacksonville had been used as it was in the future. But the city got the last laugh in 1993.

ALWAYS PASSING THE TEST

Jacksonville continues to prove the skeptics wrong.

The city proved its ability by selling leases for more than 9,000 club seats in 10 days out of the Times-Union’s offices at 1 Riverside Ave.

And when negotiations deadlocked between the city and owner Wayne Weaver, the newspaper headline proclaimed, “Game’s over: TD Jax pulls out of NFL race.”

Not so fast. Times-Union Publisher Carl Cannon stepped in and helped mediate a workable deal between Weaver and Mayor Ed Austin.

The next headline said, “NFL talks on again.”

All along this newspaper has believed that a NFL franchise is important for Jacksonville. It puts the city into an exclusive club of 32 in the most popular professional sport in America.

The ripple effects have been huge as well. There was the Super Bowl that brought the nation’s attention to Jacksonville. The city was on the national map.

The Jaguars have been a leader beyond sports in the business and nonprofit sectors of Jacksonville as well.

There have been extraordinary civic activities and charitable giving, first by the Weavers and now by new owner Shad Khan.

WE DID IT OUR WAY

Jacksonville used the infrastructure of the old Gator Bowl and built a modern football stadium at budget prices. That is exactly what the city did with its former Civic Auditorium, renovating it into the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.

In recent years as attendance dropped and seats were covered, the city had to earn its stripes again.

But Jacksonville validated itself as a real NFL city. Yes, fans came out even when losses were building. The patience of the fans is one sign of success.

Look around at the legacy franchises of the NFL. The Detroit Lions have had one playoff victory since 1957. The Cleveland Browns were beaten at home by a Jaguars team that is in the early stages of a massive rebuilding process.

The current stadium, EverBank Field, will have new scoreboards and water features valued at $63 million. It will have pizzazz that fans expect and that will attract attention nationwide.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been an important asset to this region, much greater than wins and losses on the football field.